Selecting my own sons is a little bit awkward

CAREY ADMITS TAKING A JOB WITH CATS WAS NOT AN EASY DECISION

NEW KILKENNY selector DJ Carey has admitted he didn’t fancy the job at first because he may have to mentor his own sons.

Michael Carey (right), DJ’S son, didn’t make the 26 for this year’s Allireland final but was part of the extended panel.

Carey said another son has designs on playing for the seniors too and that this initially left him lukewarm about the prospect of joining Brian Cody’s setup.

But the nine-time All-star said boss Cody, who has managed his own sons Diarmuid and Donncha in the past, wasn’t prepared to take no for an answer.

Carey said: “I would have been reluctant. My younger fella, Mikey, is on the panel and I have another fella who has ambitions, he’s a bit older.

“Now he didn’t have a good enough year with the club but he would have ambitions about being on the panel so it is an awkward enough situation there but that wasn’t taken as an excuse so here

I am.”

Carey managed the Kilkenny under-20s to Leinster title success this year and is replaced by Derke Lyng whose spot in the senior setup the Gowran man is now taking.

Asked how Cody convinced him to take the new job, Carey said it would have been difficult to say no when Kilkenny called.

Carey said: “At the end of the day, I’m a Kilkenny person, that’s my passion. I would have been asked in for a few county teams in the past and I just felt that I would prefer to give my time to my own county, or club, rather than go outside of that. That’s something I believe in. There’s no one can be more passionate than a person (managing) where they are from.” Carey admitted he had plenty of offers from counties in recent years to manage them.

He said: “Yeah, I did. Was I tempted? Not really.

“Not many of them got past the stage of me saying it wouldn’t be for me.

“For me, and I’m talking purely about for me, if you have to go more than an hour to some place then it wouldn’t be for me because it is taking away the passion I would have.”

Five-time All-ireland senior medallist Carey said his gut feeling is that Kilkenny still have some improving to do to reach the top again.

He said: “We got to an All-ireland final this year – obviously not lacking hurling, of course – but it was with pure grit and determination and in your face and when I say that, I mean going for every ball, tackling for every ball, every ball counts and matters. I think we still have to get up to a level.”